USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > Pioneer history of Milwaukee > Part 43
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One would like to know upon what authority, that is, fair historical authority, this stupid trash to which reference has been made, posi- tively stands. If such a statement has been originally made, the
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same person can be asked to repeat it-repeat it exactly as it stands in the " History of Milwaukee," lately published. Let's have the old settler's authority for the idea, in the old settler's exact words, and then collate them with the text of the book.
In the case of Juneau's trading post near the corner of Wisconsin and East Water Streets, the warehouse was separate and detached from his dwelling; a short distance intervening between the two. No foul scents could pollute the air of the house proper, neither was there a wolf to be seen or heard howling: Juneau lived, on the contrary, nicely, and everything for his table was prepared by his wife in the neatest and most cleanly manner-in fact he prided him- self on her skill as a good housewife. Personally, Mrs. Juneau was shy and retiring with strangers, but hospitable, industrious, watchful and very kind to all conditions of both poor and rich. Their mode of living, apart from annoyance by the Indians, was one of industry, plenty, of constant hospitality and real charities.
E. GOODRICH LOOMIS.
(D.)
To the Editor of the Sentinel :
It may perhaps appear strange that I have kept silent so long in regard to the scandalous lies published in the new history of Mil- waukee by the Western Historical Company, about the home life of Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Juneau, which have called forth such uni- versal condemnation from the Old Settler's Club and others; but it is never too late to do justice, and I now take the opportunity to add my voice to this ; and to say, that I fully and unqualifiedly en- dorse the statement made by Hon. Morgan L. Martin, as well as the action taken by the Old Settler's and Pioneer Club on the 25th of June, as being just, and that I fully concur in the same. A more brutal and cowardly attack upon the memory of the honored dead could not well have been made, and should bring upon its author, whoever he may be, the scorn and contempt of the people of Mil- waukee, who will ever hold the memory of Solomon Juneau and his wife in grateful remembrance. The statement made on pages 64 and 65, if true, should never have been put in print. But known,
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as they certainly are by all of the early settlers, to be wholly untruc, they have called out an indignant denial from all who have read them.
No settler's cabin in the west, that I have ever been in, was kept in better order or had a more homelike appearance than theirs, as many yet living, besides myself, who were entertained there upon their first arrival in the place, in 1835 and 1836, can testify.
I was intimately acquainted with Mrs. Solomon Juneau. My child, Milwaukee Smith, was born October 10, 1835. She was the first white child born in Milwaukee, and Mrs. Juneau was present at her birth, and attended upon my wife in such a kind and motherly manner as to win the love and esteem of my wife as well as myself.
Mrs. Juneau was also an attendant and watcher at the death bed of my wife, some two years after, and during the whole period of our acquaintance we were on the most intimate terms.
For such services rendered to my wife during her sickness, I of- fered ample remuneration, which was immediately declined-she saying to me, "Such services were due all, and that, too, without consideration." Such incidents can never be forgotten, and I feel that I must thus add my testimony to her goodness as a woman, and I trust that Milwaukee, to-day, has her equal-I know it has not her superior.
As to the work, as a whole, I consider it worthless, as it is grossly incorrect, badly arranged and much too large. Neither have I seen a person who has one that does not consider himself badly soll. It is more like a directory than a history. The twelve dollars for the book and the sixty dollars for the portrait, seem to have been the main consideration with the originators.
URIEL B. SMITH.
Milwaukee, July 9, 1881.
(E.)
From the Waukesha Freeman.
The false, malicious attacks and aspersions towards the memory of our beloved sister Josette Juneau and her husband L. Solomon Juneau, as published in a history of Milwaukee, at the foot of page 64 and at the top of page 65, under the general head of " Milwaukee's
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second permanent settlers," and printed in Chicago, A. T. Andrews, proprietor, have filled us with sorrow and indignation.
These attacks and aspersions have been already refuted by many able writers, eminently among them, Judge Morgan Lewis Martin, of Green Bay. But how can we be silent when the memories of our dead are basely slandered, and their names vilified in an edition of five thousand volumes ?
Among other baseless fabrications in these books, we are obliged to quote the following malignant invention beginning at the last line of page 64: " L. Solomon Juneau's dwelling house stood more out into East Water Street than the present block, and was a dwelling, store and store-house for furs, all in one. Mrs. Juneau, who was at least three-eighths squaw, had almost absolutely nothing with which to keep house, and if it had been otherwise, her position would not have been a delightful one for the mistress of any of Milwaukee's elegant residences to-day. The stinking skins which her husband was obliged to keep stored in the house, together with the odor given off by the quantities of fresh meat and fish kept on hand, which frequently became pretty rank before being consigned to the spit, combined to make a perfume not wholly unlike a modern glue factory. This stench delighted the nostrils of the surrounding swarms of Indians, as well as of the packs of wolves and clouds of flies which it attracted. Mr. and Mrs. Juneau were practically In- dians, though the former was French, and the latter part French. They dresssed and ate like Indians, and generally in their domestic conversation, spoke in the Indian tongue. Their house, which was built of tamarack poles cut by Mr. Juneau with the help of his red brethren in the dense tamarack forests which then covered what is now the Second Ward, was the rendezvous of all the "buck " male Indians in the vicinity."
We observe that this tissue of falsehoods states that Mrs. Juneau had almost nothing to keep house with, although quantities of fresh meat and fish became spoiled before it could be used.
For some purpose of his own the author of the passages we have quoted, has thought fit to so pervert the truth about Juneau's trading post, residence and habits of life. The warehouse, or store, was one hundred feet from the dwelling house of Juneau, which was exclu-
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sively appropriated to his own family and to Amable Vieau, who was his assistant for thirty years, and remembers the facts distinctly. In addition there was a small house for Indian people who came to trade and a commodious root house or cavreau on the river bank.
Both Juneau and his wife were educated to the greatest cleanlı- ness and proprieties of life. Their mother-tongue was French, in which they uniformly conversed, and their dress that of well-to-do, civilized persons ; their food was of the best quality and excellently prepared at all times ; game and fish were of course in abundance and both of them delighted in a hospitality which could with diffi- culty be found elsewhere in the country.
How could it be otherwise on a frontier where nature was so lux- uriant, and Juneau the great provider of all the civilized commodities which the tribes sought with avidity ? Juneau stood to the Indian population as Mr. Alexander Mitchell has done to the present com- munity of the same region.
Hence the statement already quoted by us from the book published in Chicago, (entitled a History of Milwaukee,) we brand as false, base, cowardly and malicious. We have hereby added our contra- diction of its calumnies to the admirable counter statement of Judge Morgan Lewis Martin, of Green Bay, of E. Goodrich Loomis, Esq., of Milwaukee, and of the Old Settler's Club of the same city.
P. J. VIEAU. A. VIEAU.
Muskego, Waukesha Co., Wis.
MILWAUKEE, January 31, 1884.
To F. S, Buck, Esq. :
DEAR SIR :- In relation to the statements on page 65, of the His- tory of Milwaukee recently issued by the Western Historical and Publishing Co., of Chicago, concerning the home life of Solomon Juneau and wife, to which my attention was called at the time of the Old Settlers meeting, allow me to say that I consider such state- ments a far greater disgrace to the book than they can be to the persons disparaged. Fortunately for the dead they are out of reach of either blame or praise, but the feelings of their surviving children are to be considered. I was well acquainted with Solomon Juneau
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and wife, and knew enough of their family life to testify that they lived as other people lived, spoke the English language, and I know no reason why Mrs. Juneau's house was not as well kept as was the houses of other women at that time. Those who boarded with them give ample testimony in her favor. Let none think or speak ill of those who helped to make the rough places smooth, and the wilder- ness a garden for others to enjoy.
Very Truly Yours,
WM. S. TROWBRIDGE.
MILWAUKEE, January 22, 1884.
To Fas. S. Buck, Esq .:
My attention having been called a few days since to the scanda- lous statements made on page 65 of a book entitled, a History of Milwaukee, issued in 1881, by an association known as the Western Historical and Publishing Co., of Chicago, and not having been present at the meeting of the Old Settlers Club, held June 25, 1881, to express their indignation in reference to said statements, and wish- ing to add my testimony with theirs to their utter falsity, I desire to say that I was a boarder in the family of Mr. Juneau, as were also my brother, Benj. H. Edgerton, Albert Fowler, Geo. O. Tiffany, Talbert C. Dousman, Geo. P. Deleplane, Augustus A. Bird, Henry Hosmer, Geo. Hosmer, and perhaps others, during the winter of 1835-6, and can say for myself, that I do not wish for better food or a cleanlier set table than was the one presided over by the kind- hearted woman whom this book has so vilely traduced. The house was always neat and orderly. Neither can I understand the motive that prompted the publication of these vile slanders, unless it was " pure cussedness," and I am glad that my attention was called to them, in order that I might add my testimony to the untruthfulness of the whole statement. Please make such use of this as you may . think proper.
ELISHA W. EDGERTON.
These statements are right to the point, and coming as they do from two of our well known and respected pioneers, who know whereof they speak-and whose veracity cannot be questioned, are
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alone sufficient to refute the whole statement on said page 65, con- cerning the home life of this noble hearted man and woman.
MRS. PORTHIER'S DENIAL
Mrs. Victoria Porthier has attached her mark to the following statement concerning her family and the family of Mr. Juneau. The correction was written at her dictation by her grand daughter, Helen Juneau :
I see by the recent history of Milwaukee, that I was born once on the west side of the city, and once on the south side. That is something new and strange to me; we never lived on either side named; we lived on the east side always. The children of my father, Mr. Morandeau, were all born in a small log house, then standing where Mr. Mitchell's bank now stands, which, after we left the place, was the site of Mr. Juneau's frame dwelling. My father, like many other traders,* came and went, and finally settled and died here. After his death, his widow and children returned to their Indian friends in Muskego. The book also states that my father left Canada on account of some love affair. This is the first I ever heard of anything of the kind. I never told any one so be- cause it is untrue. He felt that he was not called to the ministry. Another thing, Mr. Juneau could not take our land, because we had none. The Indians promised my father the land from Walker's Point to the Polisht settlement when the treaty should take place, but he died before that time. Therefore Mr. Juneau had as good a right to enter those lands as any other man. As to my father's books, I know that my mother gave Mr. Juneau a few. As to my age, I am a year and a half or two years younger than Mrs. Juneatı. Mr. Juneau had three children before I knew him.
Her VICTORIA A PORTHIER. Mark.
Milwaukee Sentinel, June 20, 1881.
*As this is the first as well as the only mention of Morandeau as a trader, it is undoubtedly incorrect, and I think it will be admitted by all who knew anything of him, that whatever else he might have been, he certainly was never a trader.
+Meaning the present First, Seventh and Third Wards.
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STATEMENT OF JEAN BAPTIST LE TENDREE.
I was born at Pasvoir-Grand Mascan, Lower Canada, April 1, 1794, and came to Detroit in 1816, where I remained about three years, when I came to Chicago, where I went into the employ of the American Fur Company, and remained in their employ for twenty-five years, under J. B. Beaubien and Solomon Juneau. I came to Milwaukee in 1822, to live with Mr. Juneau, who was then living in a log cabin at what is now known as Pettibone's lime kiln, on the Menomonee. Mr. Juneau's oldest son, Narcisse, was then about six months old. This was in May, they having just returned from a visit to Green Bay, where the boy Narcisse was born the November previous. The base slanders about Mr. and Mrs. Juneau's manner of living, as represented in the book lately published by the Western Publishing Company, of Chicago, purporting to be a His- tory of Milwaukee, is false in every particular, and as for speaking Indian that is false, as Mr. Juneau could not speak any Indian until long after he came to Milwaukee. Mrs. Juneau's house was always neat and clean, and anything said in that history to the contrary is a base lie. From Pettibone's lime kiln they moved to a house which had formerly been occupied by Mr. Beaubien, who had just sold out his interest to Mr. Juneau. This was Le-Clere's old cabin, who was in the employ of Mr. Beaubien before that time. The house which the history mentions as having been built by Mr. Juneau and his Indian friends out of tamarack logs, cut where the Exposition Build- ing now stands, was built long before Mr. Juneau ever saw Milwan- kee. The distance between the house and store was at least eight or ten rods, nor were any stinking skins ever kept in the dwelling.
Mr. Morandeau I never saw but once, and only know from hear- say that he was a blacksmith and very intemperate. He was a Canadian by birth, neither did I ever hear of his having any education.
As to the charge made that Mr. Juneau obtained his land through fraud, by getting his men to swear when drunk, a blacker lie was never told. I was the man who went to the Bay, and I know that I was not drunk.
Neither Victoria, Josette, or Leuizeon Morandeau came to Mil-
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waukee to live until 1835, they having lived for several years previ- ously at Little Lake, Il1.
As for the raft for crossing the river, that is false. There was no raft. There were at least ten or twelve canoes, besides a Mackinac boat, always lying at the bank of the river, consequently no raft was wanted, or ever used. As to where Onotsah (or the Flour) died, it was, as stated in Buck's History, at Council Bluffs.
His JEAN BAPTISTE LE-TENDREE, Mark. MADELINE JUNEAU. STELLA HANEY.
STATE OF KANSAS, SHAWNEE COUNTY, SS :
Be it remembered, that on this, first day of September, A. I). 1883, before me, the undersigned, notary public in and for the county and State aforesaid, came J. B. LeTendree, Madeline Juneau and Stella Haney, who are personally known to me to be the same persons who executed the within instrument of writing, and such persons duly acknowledged the execution of the same.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed my notarial seal, the day and year last above written.
B. T. PAYNE, Notary Pub
STATEMENT OF JOSETTE MORANDEAU.
I was born in Milwaukee, and am two years older than my sister Victoria, (Mrs. Porthier) and am two years younger than Mrs. Sol- omon Juneau, who I knew intimately after 1836, and know her to have been an honest, virtuous and charitable woman. I know her also to have been a neat house keeper, as I always lived near her when in Milwaukee, both before and after my marriage.
I hear that she has been assailed and vilified by persons who never knew or saw her, and who with malice attack her, thinking no doubt that all of her old friends were dead long ago, thereby feeling safe in vilifying her, or from being called upon to substantiate their state- ments. We lived in Milwaukee a number of years in the summer
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only, where my father, Mr. Morandeau, worked at his trade as a blacksmith, and in the winter would move to Lake Koshkonong or the " Skoop-er-nong," (Bark River) where my little sister Madeline was drowned when about three years old. It is a mistake when Victoria states that she was drowned in Milwaukee.
As for my father having any books, I know that he had two or three, one of which was a Prayer Book, and one was a song book- what the other was I cannot now remember, and that is all the books that I ever saw father have. When father died, all of the blacksmith tools and the books-except the Prayer book-were taken by a Mr. James Kenzie, and this book mother afterwards sold for drink. Father was a Canadian, and not a Frenchman, but did not come from Canada with Mr. Vieau, who he first met at Mackinaw, and from there they came to Green Bay together, and from Green Bay father came to Milwaukee.
Mother was an Ottawa girl, whom father married before he ever saw Mr. Vieau. As to the story that he was intended for a " Black Robe," (Priest,) this is the first I ever heard of it; or of the story about his having been made a " chief," and a large part of what is now Milwaukee, given him. That is not so. He was permitted, like many others,to live there and work at his trade as long as he chose to remain. He was well liked by the Indians because he was kind to them, and was very useful in repairing their guns. During the war of 1812 between the " Saginash,," (English) and the Amer- icans, he, father, used to make spears, lances, war clubs and knives for the Indians to fight the Americans with, for which offence he was arrested, the first time he went to Mackinaw by order of the Commandant at that Post, who kept him in confinement all summer, when Onotsah, (The Flour), Shaw-wee-ou, (his brother), and Ma-chee-see-bee went to Mackinaw and had father released and sent home.
I must say that my father was very intemperate, which was the indirect cause of his death while wintering on Bark River, by at- tempting while intoxicated to place a heavy back-log upon the fire, which log falling upon him, injured him so badly that he died in a few weeks after our return to Milwaukee. He was buried on the hill between the river and the lake, on what is now Wisconsin street.
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Now, as to our claim to any portion of what is now Milwaukee by virtue of any gift from the Indians, it is not true. There was never any land given to father, or to any of us, or any promise of any. Victoria says (or at least the history so states, ) that Mr. Juneau took the land away from us, all I can say is, that we never had any to take. Victoria and her husband came to Milwaukee after the last payment at Chicago, 1835. I was there, and I know, as for several years previous to that, neither myself or my brother Leuizeon had lived regularly in Milwaukee, our home having been at Little Lake, Ill. Mother did not die in Milwaukee, she died in my wigwam at Muskego. Victoria should state things as they are. She states also (or the history does,) that she is the only child of Mr. Morandean now living. There are four of us yet living, herself, myself, Leu- izeon and Baptiste; two in Kansas and two in Wisconsin.
Her JOSETTE A MORANDEAU. Mark.
Witnesses : MRS. HANEY. MRS. N. M. JUNEAU.
STATE OF KANSAS, SHAWNEE COUNTY, SS :
Be it remembered, that on this ist day of September, A. D. 1883, before me the undersigned, a Notary Public, in and for the County and State aforesaid, came Josette Morandean, who is personally known to me to be the same person who executed the within instru- ment of writing, and such person duly acknowledged the execution of the same.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed my Notarial Seal, the day and year last above written.
B. T. PAYNE, Notary Public.
.There are doubtless many yet living who remember this honest old trapper, whose statement is given above, and Milwaukee cer- tainly never held within her borders a more honest citizen than was Jean Baptiste Le Tendree.
Josette Morandeau, the writer remembers to have seen a few times, prior to the removal of the Indians in 1838, and has no reason to doubt her statement, as it certainly was a voluntary act on her part,
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as was also that of Le Tendree, and both are verified by oath. He also remembers seeing "Madame Morandeau" or "Wish-to-you-qua," (the blacksmith's woman,) as she was called by the Indians, paddling around the Kinnickinnick and Menomonee marshes in a dug-out, in 1837 and '38, and must say that as a fitting wife for a man of Moran- deau's "extreme polish " and " gentility," she did not appear to possess the requisite " debonnaire " to have filled the bill.
She was also present at, and took a part in a dance, held by the Indians in front of the old Post Office, on Wisconsin Street, in the early part of June, 1838, (she being the only one of the " fair sex " present,) and although at that time over 70 years of age, she not only danced with as much vigor, but appeared also to enjoy the pandemonium the affair created to as great an extent as the worst painted son of "Shitan " in the crowd. This dance was also wit- nessed by John Julien, now living on Market Street, who knew Madame Morandeau, and who recollects of her being present upon this occasion.
Another error corrected :
THE OLD FRENCH VILLAGE.
The following letter from Daniel W. Fowler to the author, explains itself, and is given as an act of justice to Albert Fowler, who has gone to the better land, and cannot in person take the stand in his own defense. The writer has never believed that the statement re- ferred to as coming from him, had any foundation, or was ever uttered by him, and is glad that he lived long enough to refute it verbally :
MILWAUKEE, WIS., Nov. 14, 1883.
SIR :- My attention has recently been directed to a statement which appears in the history of Milwaukee, published by the Western Historical Co., alleged to have been made by my father, the late Albert Fowler, in reference to evidences of " An Early French Vil- lage," and appears on page 61 of that publication, in which he is quoted as saying, " that he had discovered in 1833, on the present site of Milwaukee, the ruins of a large number of structures built of logs." Having subsequently called his attention to this statement,
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he most emphatically declared that said statement was an exaggera- tion, and was not true, and that no such statement was ever author- ized by him. That a few log structures existed is evident, as Mr. Fowler occupied an abandoned one during the winter of 1833 and 1834, but the statement that a large French village ever existed here on the present site of Milwaukee, is not, I believe, supported by tradition, or other evidence of a reliable character.
Yours Respectfully,
D. W. FOWLER.
JAMES S. BUCK, Milwaukee, Wis.
EXPLANATORY.
The reader who has perused Vol. I, of the author's " Pioneer His- tory of Milwaukee," has no doubt seen the short sketch of this man Morandeau," on page 150, copied from and credited to Dr. Enoch Chase's address, read before the " Old Settlers' Club," July 4, 1872, which sketch, no doubt, the Doctor at that time believed to be true. But the author must say, that notwithstanding the high authority of the Doctor as a historian upon all matters relating to the early settle- ment of the Northwest, and more particularly of Milwaukee, of which he is one of the early landmarks and a worthy and honored citizen, that to him it has always been an enigma how a man pos- sessed of the few virtues which even that address-to say nothing of what the alleged history claims for him-should turn his back upon it all, learn the blacksmithing trade, come into this then howling wilderness, and lead the vagabond life which there is no denying that this man did, in following the Indians about from place to place for the sole purpose apparently (as he was not a trader) of tinkering their guns and drinking poor whisky. But thanks to the efforts of the Western Historical Publishing Company, of Chicago, the whole matter is explained. They undertook too large a contract in attempt- ing to oust Mr. Juneau, and, to use a slang phrase, not only got a hoist themselves from their own petard, but have also cut off the limb from their newly discovered " genealogical tree," upon which their protege stood, between him and the tree, thereby causing him to drop to his original level, viz: "A common Canadian engage." Their medicine was too strong.
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